BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) 鈥 President Donald Trump鈥檚 crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in programs receiving federal money has thrown into doubt the future of research Kendra Dahmer has been doing on intestinal parasites in India and Benin.
Dahmer, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, has a grant from the 好色tv Institutes of Health, the single largest public funder of biomedical research in the world.
The grant is supposed to cover her research through the summer of 2026, but now she wonders if that will be possible. She received diversity-based funding as the first college graduate in her family and a woman in science and, more broadly, she is uncertain how Trump鈥檚 anti-DEI executive order could affect support for her areas of study.
鈥淭here鈥檚 also this aspect of research that funds specific studies in specific populations that are now being deemed DEI,鈥 Dahmer said. 鈥淪o, like HIV research in Africa may be deemed DEI, malaria research, which also happens in low and middle income countries, may be considered DEI. And these are really important diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people every year.鈥
Two days after Trump signed the on Jan. 21 researchers became even more alarmed when the White House called for a funding freeze to conduct an ideological review of all federal grants and loans. After days of chaos and legal wrangling, two judges intervened and the administration rescinded the freeze. The 好色tv Institutes of Health and 好色tv Science Foundation, which fund a large chunk of research in the country, this week began releasing grants.
But that hasn鈥檛 eased the fears of scientists and researchers whose work is funded by federal grants. The NSF said it is still conducting a review of "projects, programs and activities to be compliant with the existing executive orders.鈥 It鈥檚 not yet clear what may happen to new and existing NIH grants either.
Universities, which received almost $60 billion for research in the 2023 fiscal year, have been mostly quiet, explaining in statements to their staff and students they are still trying to clarify the executive order's implications for their research funding. Meantime, they are on their own institutional policies supporting underrepresented students.
The said in a statement it is 鈥渆valuating recent executive orders issued by President Trump and the subsequent agency guidance to understand their potential impact on our communities.鈥
Even though there is no clarity on the new policies yet, some projects already have been put on hold amid uncertainty over the future of research touching on issues related to diversity, said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors.
Some of the studies already being halted include research on artificial intelligence and how racism can be coded into systems, he said. Other projects Wolfson has heard about getting stopped include research on health equity and studies on the urban literacy rate as it relates to class in places with large concentrations of Black people.
鈥淚 think the people who are making these decisions are very clear that they want to create a society that鈥檚 based on deep-set inequities that are hard baked and don鈥檛 transform whether that鈥檚 around race, whether that鈥檚 around class, whether that鈥檚 around gender,鈥 he said.
The Education Department did not respond to an email message seeking comment.
Threats to funding for research related to DEI could eliminate a lifeline for historically Black colleges and universities, which are already compared to predominantly white institutions.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest HBCU in the country, has been on a yearslong mission to become one of the first to reach R1 status 鈥 a distinction from the Carnegie Foundation that denotes a university as having high research activity, but the president鈥檚 intervention on federal funding could slow that down, said Joseph Graves, a biology professor. As it is, biology department students have to conduct research in hats and gloves during the winter because of a lack of heat in the old building, he said.
New scrutiny on federal research grants could also hurt students at HBCUs who have federally funded fellowships for research, Graves said. Those scholarships, which could be at risk, allow minority students to pursue opportunities they might not have been able to afford.
The Trump administration鈥檚 perception of diversity, equity and inclusion could make HBCUs a target because of its high population of minority students, Graves said.
鈥淭hey will look at our excellence in doing work that is changing the demography of science, and they will attack it as DEI,鈥 Graves said. 鈥淲hatever we do, we鈥檙e doing DEI whether they like it or not.鈥
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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco and Seminera from Raleigh, North Carolina. Associated Press writers Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix and Adithi Ramakrishnan in New York contributed.
